


the arming of villager B

by mothraesthetic (burritosong)



Series: 52 Ficlet Project [2]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Ambiguous Relationships, Anxiety, Gen, Implied/Referenced Underage Drinking, Self Confidence Issues, Self-Discovery, Team Dynamics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-27
Updated: 2016-01-27
Packaged: 2018-05-16 12:48:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,180
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5829535
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/burritosong/pseuds/mothraesthetic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The third years graduate, and Yachi finds she's not nearly as ready to fill Kiyoko's shoes as she thought. However quitting isn't nearly as easy as she thought it would be.</p>
            </blockquote>





	the arming of villager B

**Author's Note:**

> 52 ficlet project, week two: a story about rising to a challenge

Village B can fight too, but Yachi has no weapons to fight with, and even if she did, she wouldn't know how to use them.

She thought she knew what to do, thought she could handle the volleyball team on her own, and at first she thinks she's doing well. She realizes too late that that's due to Kiyoko and Daichi and Suga and Asahi.

It's the first day of a new year and the gym is filled with fresh-faced first years, but Yachi is okay–really she is–at least she is until Ennoshita claps her on the shoulder and introduces her to everyone as Karasuno's manager. Her survival instincts must kick in, and luckily it's the fight half of fight-or-flight, because she spends the rest of practice in a daze, unable to feel her knees or take a proper breath because she has realized that she really has no idea what she's doing or how she's going to fill Kiyoko's shoes.

The realization sits heavy in her chest and stomach until she goes home and collapses in her bed.

"I have to quit the volleyball club," she announces to her walls.

She waits, for some kind of sign or voice to speak out and disagree with her words, but it never comes.

She'll tell them first thing tomorrow she decides, and stays up all night composing her resignation in her head, which promptly backfires when she sleeps in and is almost late to school.

Before practice starts, she promises herself, and her apologies rattle around in her head for the entire school day.

She sees Ennoshita (Ennoshita-san, Ennoshita-sempai, Captain Ennoshita–she doesn't know how to address him anymore) on the way to practice and decides to take advantage of the fact to put her resignation in now. She's fully confident in the apology she constructed last night, until she's standing in front of him, and then the words fly out of her head.

She stands there, trying to remember how to quit.

"Yachi–" Ennoshita starts, and it startles her out of her stupor.

" _I'm sorry!_ " she shouts out, before turning to run to the gym.

Mechanically she gets to work, preparing everything for the team, while wondering what is wrong with her.

Tomorrow–she'll quit tomorrow she promises herself.

Except tomorrow comes and she's too busy, between classes and doing her duties as manager to find time to make her apologies to anyone. So again she promises herself she'll quit tomorrow.

She'll quit tomorrow.

Tomorrow for real.

* * *

But all of the tomorrows start adding up, and suddenly a month has passed and Yachi still hasn't quit. She's got her bearings and has her legs under her and today is the day she is going to resign. Except–

When she walks to the gym she sees a girl hovering nervously by the door.

It's not that uncommon to find people wanting to watch the team practice, not anymore with the momentum of last year's victories still behind them, but there's something about this girl's posture that suggests she isn't here to swoon over the team.

"Can I help you?"

The girl looks up from her shoes with a start and then flushes.

"Are you Yachi-san, the manager of the boys' volleyball team?"

Yachi has the sudden, ridiculous, thought that a rival team has sent some sort of undercover agent to assassinate her, and she tries to shove it away because surely if anyone was going to be assassinated it would be one of the players and not her, but then she realizes she would make a very good hostage, which–

She needs to stop thinking that. The reason she doesn't recognize this girl is probably just because she's a first year.

A first year, that's it. Not an assassin.

"Yes, that's me."

(Not an assassin, just a girl. Keep saying that.)

"I'm Sato Kaori, year one class three, and I would like to join the volleyball club."

Yachi looks _up_ at Sato Kaori, who is probably almost as tall as Tsukishima, and has the ridiculous thought for half a second that _but girls can't play on the boys team_.

She shakes her head to clear it. At least she isn't an assassin.

"The girls' club meets tomorrow," Yachi clarifies. "But I think it might be too late to try out."

"Oh, I don't want to play! I want to be a manager," Sato says. "For the boys' team," she adds for good measure. "I know it's late to start, but my sister's a manager for the basketball team and I promised her I would give that a shot but I really don't care about basketball at all, and I've always wanted to join the volleyball team."

"Um…if you like volleyball that much, I'm sure the girls' team will let you–"

"I don't want to play volleyball. I mean, I love it, but I can't possibly play. But I do want to help the team as much as I can. Karasuno was once a champion school, and now we're on our way to being that again, and I just want to be a part of it."

* * *

Yachi quickly realizes exactly why, when she is so passionate and knowledgeable about volleyball, Sato-chan does not want to actually play the game.

"I'm sorry!"

It's the fourth time in the last thirty minutes that Sato's said it, and Yachi is very sorry to say that this is a good day because it hasn't been more. Sato may be rich in height and enthusiasm, but she makes up for it with her total lack of grace. To say that she's a walking disaster would be kind; the girl is the clumsiest person Yachi has ever met. Anything she touches, falls over; whatever she holds, she drops. And Yachi has yet to see her cross the gym without tripping over her feet even once.

Still, Yachi can't deny that Sato is more help than she is not. She brings a knowledge about the sport that Yachi lacks, and has a clear picture of what a manager's job is. As far as being a good upperclassman goes, Yachi feels like she's failing. She doesn't really believe in fate or destiny or grand plans, but she wonders if maybe there's a reason she didn't manage to quit before Sato joined.

She considers calling Kiyoko to ask her advice, but balks. Kiyoko is probably too busy with university and whatever friend's she's made there to bother with little, floundering Yachi.

She thinks about what Kiyoko told her at the start, that all she needed was a little bit of curiosity.

Yachi wonders if maybe this is as far as curiosity can carry her.

She looks across the gym, at faces familiar and new, registers Sato's excitement at yet another one of Hinata and Kageyama's freak quicks, and thinks that perhaps there is an earthquake happening that no one else has noticed, because she feels like the ground is crumbling away underneath her feet, leaving her dangling somewhere between the edge of a precipice and the dark horror of an unknown chasm.

She realizes she doesn't want to leave this place, not just yet. If this is as far as curiosity can take her, then she'll just have to find something else to carry her forward.

She tries to recapture that feeling she had when making the fundraising posters for the club, but it continues to evade her. It's not that she doesn't like being a manager, or that she hates volleyball, but she just doesn't seem to be as passionate about it as everyone else. Even when she thinks back on Kiyoko's place in the club, there was a quiet fire in her for the sport that Yachi just can't seem to light in herself.

Still, she stays, not sure of how to explain that while she doesn't hate it she doesn't seem to love it as much as everyone else.

The team is different now, without Daichi-san's reliabilty and Suga-san's tenacity and Asahi-san's power and Kiyoko's quiet suppport. Yachi keeps pushing forward, trying to live up to Kiyoko's shadow, but she's shaky where Kiyoko was strong, awkward where Kiyoko was cool. There's still so much she doesn't know, and she finds herself embarrassed every time she has to ask Sato-chan to explain something to her. Almost a year of this and there are still things about the game that Yachi doesn't know.

She's sitting at her desk, supposedly working on homework, but really she's just staring at her phone, unsure of whether she's trying to talk herself into or out of dialing Kiyoko's number to ask her how she did it all. _What do you do when you feel like you have no idea what you're doing?_ she asks herself. She doesn't know how Kiyoko would answer that, but she can already hear her mom's voice in her head answering.

_Fake it until you make it._

* * *

Interhigh is coming up rapidly, and there's so much to do between classes and practice and training camp that it isn't hard. She's not sure when exactly, but one day the feeling of faking it slips away quietly and is replaced by something else she can't quite put her finger on.

She's filled with that unnamed thing one night, sitting on the couch in Tanaka-sempai's apartment, wedged between Hinata and Tanaka and trying desperately not to spill her drink between their enthusiasm. She's not sure what she's drinking, only that it's fruity and she's probably had too much of it because she just can't seem to _shut up_ about Kiyoko. But considering the way Tsukishima and Yamaguchi are pressed together across the room without any sort of repercussions from the team, she thinks it's alright, just this once, if anyone sees through her.

A few of the first years are sprawled on the floor in front of the couch, listening in rapture to Yachi and Tanaka talk about Kiyoko.

"Kiyoko-san sounds so cool," Takahashi-kun says.

"Yeah but there's no way she's as cool as Yachi-sempai," Sato argues, and a chorus of agreements follow.

Hinata crows and Tanaka thumps Yachi on the back, sending her drink wobbling dangerously.

At the end of the night, the first years all wander off together while the second and third years shuffle over who'll walk Yachi home. Tanaka pouts over the fact that he's immediately out of the running because he's already home. Hinata looks exhausted, swaying on his feet, and Tsukishima's holding Yamaguchi up. Ennoshita finally ends up volunteering, shutting down everyone else with a flat look.

They walk in silence, and Yachi marvels at how comfortable she feels because a year ago she never could have imagined that she would feel perfectly fine about being walked home by a tall upperclassman.

"Thanks," she says, "for walking me home."

She feels safe in the night with Ennoshita. She's closer to Hinata and Yamaguchi and Kageyama and Tsukishima, but there is something about Ennoshita that is quietly reassuring.

"I should be thanking you," Ennoshita says.

Yachi wracks her brain trying to figure out what he could possibly mean but comes up with nothing.

"Um…y-you're welcome," she says, hoping that he doesn't take offense at her clueless-ness.

"For all you do for the team," Ennoshita clarifies. "I know it's taken a while for Tanaka and me to get used to leading the team, and having your support has really made a difference. I don't think we could have done it without you."

Yachi stops in her tracks.

"What?"

She has to have misheard him. Maybe she had too much to drink, or her imagination has finally gotten the better of her. There's no way Ennoshita just said what she thought he said.

She stares at him incredulously.

"I mean it," he says. "Whenever I thought I couldn't handle things, I'd just think about the fact that you were able to come in halfway through last year, without knowing anything about volleyball, and take up after Kiyoko so naturally, and tell myself to tough it up and get my act together."

Yachi is dead. She's died and gone to some other world where people think she's admirable. She's dizzy with that feeling she can't name, but she thinks she loves it a little.

Ennoshita scratches the back of his neck.

"Anyway I've been meaning to say it for a while, I haven't had a chance before now. We all really appreciate all the work you've done for us."

Yachi feels warm all over, and she's sure she's blushing and grinning so widely her face is probably going to crack in half and she'll have to spend the rest of her life with her cracked head in a bag, but she doesn't even care at all.

(She might have definitely had too much to drink.)

She lies in bed staring up at her ceiling that night, giddy and buoyant and trying to chase down the right words for her feelings.

She never does find the word, but she walks into practice on Monday knowing one thing: she's not going to leave the club.

* * *

Karasuno walks into the Interhigh and all eyes are on them, everyone wondering just what theyll do with the momentum they built up last year. They storm through Interhigh and march right into summer training camp with their Tokyo rivals, and by the time Yachi has time to breathe Spring High is right around the corner.

"Yachi-san, can I ask you a question?"

"Of course, Kaori-chan," Yachi says without looking up from the poster idea she's sketching out. "What is it?"

"I don't want you to take this the wrong way, but I've been wondering for a while…why did you join the volleyball club?"

Yachi pauses, remembering the first time she saw Kiyoko in the hall between classes. She can't fight the smile that comes up at the memory.

"The last manager, Kiyoko, asked me to join. She was a third year, and getting ready to retire because we were already several months into the year, and she waned to make sure the club was taken care of."

"Well yeah, but _why_ did you join?"

Yachi looks up at Kaori, who's leaning forward and staring at her with wide eyes.

"You said you didn't play any sports before, and that you didn't even know anything about volleyball when you joined, so why did you?"

"I didn't know that I wanted to, at first," Yachi admits. "But I agreed to try it out–" She bites her cheek, because that isn't quite true. "Actually, I was just so surprised that Kiyoko was talking to me to begin with that I said yes without really listening to what she was asking, and I almost quit even then. I was completely unprepared for it, I wasn't even interested in volebyall."

"So why didn't you?" Kaori pushes.

_"Little by little, what you've begun will naturally become important to you. What you need at the start is a little bit of curiosity."_

"Kiyoko said," Yachi pauses, remembering her words, "she said that as long as I was willing to try it could become important to me." She knows she's doing a bad job paraphrasing it, but something keeps her from sharing Kiyoko's actual words, even though she can quote them by heart. "I don't really care about volleyball as much as everyone else, but she was right. It did become important to me, and so I stuck with it. Even when I wanted to quit, I could never bring myself to do it."

Kaori looks at her blankly. "I don't really get it."

"It feels good, to be a part of something that's bigger than me. Even if I don't love volleyball as much as Hinata or Tanaka or you, it feels good to work with all of you for a common goal, to fight alongside you. It's the best feeling in the world."

"So you like being a manger because of…the power of friendship?"

"Teamwork," Yachi says, finally naming the thing that has been carrying her forward. "I like being part of a team."

* * *

Kiyoko comes to the Spring High preliminaries.

Yachi sees her in the stands and immediately shrieks and dives behind a smirking Tsukishima so she can get her heart rate under control before she has a heart attack right there on the court and dies.

Kiyoko's not alone, she's there with Daichi and Suga and Asahi and the old captain of the girls' team, but all Yachi can think about during the match is Kiyoko, Kiyoko, _Kiyoko._

When the team files off court, she can barely even remember if they won or lost, because all she can think about is the fact that she has a pimple on her forehead the size of Tokyo and that there is no way she put on enough deodorant for today. She's considering trying to duck into a bathroom to either hide forever or make herself presentable when she hears a quiet, familiar, "Hitoka-chan."

Yachi's spirit ascends from her body and floats on to the heavens. Her body turns around and performs what she hopes is a smile.

"Ki-Kiyoko-san!"

Kiyoko's hair is different, shorter, and she has new glasses too. She looks good _–she always looks good_ , Yachi's traitorous mind reminds her–and there is so much Yachi wants to tell her. She wants to thank her for her advice and guidance, wants to ask about Kiyoko's life, but her mouth is glued shut and her mind is providing nothing but white noise static.

And then Kiyoko smiles.

"You're doing well."

It's a question and a statement and a compliment, all in one, and Yachi's heart swells.

"Yes, I am–yes, we are. Thank you!"

And then suddenly, as if Kiyoko's approval was some kind of push, all of Yachi's words come tumbling out at once, and she starts babbling about the first years and the months'-old Interhigh results, about the strategies she's learned about volleyball and the posters she's made. She talks about everything that she's been wanting to talk to Kiyoko about all year.

And Kiyoko, who probably came to see more than just Yachi, stands there patiently and just _listens_.

And the, when Yachi finishes, she does the most astounding thing.

"Thank you, Hitoka-chan. You've worked so hard to take care of the team. Thank you."

Yachi would burst into tears if she thought she could get away with it without upsetting Kiyoko, but instead she just aggressively blinks back the wetness in her eyes.

"You're welcome!"

* * *

There was a weight on Yachi's shoulders, that she didn't even realize was there until it was gone. Speaking with Kiyoko at the Spring High preliminary had lifted it, and Yachi is left feeling rejuvenated and empowered.

The feeling carries over as she crosses from second year to third, and when Tsukishima introduces her to their new first years it does not come with any feeling other than pride.

It's a new year and a new season, and Yachi Hitoka is not afraid because she can fight too.


End file.
